The invention relates to a method for providing parking information regarding free parking spaces within at least one city block.
Parking information regarding free parking spaces is used, for example, by parking guidance systems and/or navigation devices that a motor vehicle searching a parking space uses to navigate. Modern urban systems operate according to a simple principle. If the number of available parking spaces and the number of vehicles entering and exiting to and from them are known, the availability of free parking spaces can be easily established. By providing corresponding signage on access roads and dynamic update systems for parking information, vehicles can be navigated to free parking spaces. Limitations are created owing to the underlying principle itself, whereby it is necessary to require that any parking spaces are marked by clear delimitations and that the number of vehicles entering and exiting is always precisely controlled. Structural measures are needed to this end, such as, for example, gates and other access control systems.
Due to these limitations, vehicles can only be navigated to a small number of free parking spaces. Typically, only parking garages or fenced in parking facilities can be equipped with the necessary structural measures needed for integration in a parking guidance system. A by far greater number of parking spaces can be found alongside streets and roadways or in parking facilities where spaces are without clear demarcations; and these parking spaces are not taken into account.
When searching for an unoccupied parking spot particularly in urban and densely populated areas, being able to identity parking spaces alongside respective city streets is desirable. DE 10 2009 028 024 A1 teaches in this regard that information on available free parking spaces is matched to vehicle-specific data. As a result, parking spaces that are free are not being offered to a vehicle searching for a parking space, when said space is not of a sufficient size for such a vehicle. In addition, extra-large parking spaces or parking spaces that are arranged one after the other, for example, are identified as available not only to one but, depending on the size of the parked vehicles, possibly two vehicles. Used as parking exploration vehicles are, for example, vehicles that are employed in public transportation, such as, for example, busses or taxi cabs operating on a regular schedule and that are equipped with at least one sensor for detecting parking spaces. The sensor means therein can be based on optical and/or non-optical sensors.
Further, also known are community-based applications where, for example, the users of vehicles enter information into an app, when they leave a parking space. This information is then made available to other users of this service. Disadvantageously, the information regarding available parking spaces is only as good as the input information made available by users.
The described options suffer from the problem that any information regarding availability of an individual parking space is very fleeting; meaning, when a vehicle is looking for parking, in areas with a high volume of traffic, which is where parking information would be helpful, any free parking spaces that have just opened up are typically reoccupied within only a short amount of time.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a better method for providing parking information identifying free parking spaces at least within one city block.
This task is achieved by a method, a computer program product, as well as a system for providing parking information as discussed herein.
The invention provides a method for providing parking information regarding free parking spaces at least within one city block. In particular, a method is provided that takes into account free parking spaces alongside streets and roadways.
The method provides for the detection of information regarding available, free, parking spaces, wherein the detected information is used to generate a knowledge database of historical data. The historical data for specified city blocks and/or specified times or time periods comprise, respectively, statistical data on free parking spaces. Information that resides in the knowledge database specifies, for example, that in a given street with a total of x available parking spaces, y parking spaces are on average available at a certain time or during a particular time period. However, on the other hand, at a different point-in-time or during a different time period, only z<y free parking spaces are available alongside the same street. Correspondingly, the historical knowledge database thus comprises, on the one hand, information regarding which parking spaces can be utilized, as a matter of principle, as parking spaces (so-called valid parking spaces) and, on the other hand, information regarding the average number of unoccupied parking spaces at certain times.
In a further step, the historical data and current information, as detected at a first given point-in-time for a single or a plurality of selected city blocks, are entered into a probability distribution of free parking spaces to be expected for the single or the plurality of selected city blocks. A central computer preferably establishes the probability distribution. The current information regarding available, free parking spaces is transmitted by vehicles in traffic or by stationary sensors within the related city block to the central computer.
Finally, a visualization of the probability distribution is generated by which the parking information that is related to free parking spaces within the selected city blocks is represented. The visualization of the probability distribution can be achieved by the central computer, wherein the result of the visualization could then serve as a basis for a recommendation as to a suggested route that the vehicle looking for parking should take.
Utilizing a probability distribution of free parking spaces within a single or a plurality of city blocks allows for providing the vehicle that is looking for a parking space with more precise information at the point-in-time when said vehicle is in fact searching for a parking space.
An expedient embodiment provides for the detection of the information regarding available, free parking spaces by metrological measures, and wherein these values are being taken by vehicles that are in traffic. To this end, the use of the sensor technology that is available already in motor vehicles and that can be based on optical and/or non-optical sensors is possible. The use of cameras is particularly preferred. Particularly the cameras on a vehicle having a lateral orientation are contemplated for this purpose, which are, for example, provided on the vehicle as a support modality for maneuvering into a parking space while helping to avoid contact with obstacles. Similarly, sensors can be used that are originally intended, for example, as a lane-changing assistant and that assist the driver in leaving or changing a street lane. Sensors of this kind can be based on radar or on other non-optical technology, for example.
In one expedient embodiment, an edge of the street or roadway is detected by a camera on the vehicle, producing a sequence of images that is analyzed by a computer of said vehicle in order to identify free parking spaces alongside the detected edge of the street. It is expediently provided therein that only valid parking spaces are included in the probability calculation. A valid parking space is understood as a parking space where the placement of a motor vehicle is regularly allowed. While valid parking spaces are, for example, entry points to cross-sections, fire engine access areas, and the like, a plausibility assessment must determine by use of image processing and additional sensors the validity, such as a digital map, and wherein free parking spaces are automatically detected and assessed for their plausible use as a parking space by the moving vehicle. For example, a laterally placed camera on vehicles can be used for this purpose.
In a further expedient embodiment, the information regarding available, free, parking spaces is metrologically detected by sensors that are disposed alongside the city blocks. Such sensors are known in the art; for example, they are used in monitoring applications for parking spaces in parking garages or other delimited parking facilities.
It is further possible to envision that the information regarding available, free parking is generated manually by user inputs into an end device (e.g., Smartphone, laptop computer, tablet computer, etc., but also via the user interface of a vehicle). For example, special apps can be provided for this purpose through which users can report free parking spaces. A corresponding user entry can be input, for example, at the time when the user maneuvers his or her vehicle out of a parking space. The corresponding information is then taken into account in the parking computer as mentioned at the outset of the present comments in the context of processing the current information.
The term “current information” always refers to a certain point-in-time in the present. Current information is not only used for combining the same with historical data; furthermore, such information is simultaneously also always added to the historical data, such that the historical data comprise the detected data since the beginning date of the creation of a recorded volume of free parking spaces within certain city blocks at certain points-in-time.
The information regarding available, free parking spaces are expediently transmitted to the central computer that generates and/or manages the knowledge database. Any such central computer can be administered, for example, by a service provider offering parking information. Any such service provider can be, for example, a vehicle manufacturer who thus causes information regarding free parking spaces to be processed in the context of his navigation systems for route and travel information.
A further embodiment provides that first information regarding the maneuvering action of a motor vehicle in an effort of entering or exiting a parking space is detected as information, wherein, a maneuvering rate for exiting a parking space is determined based on the standing times between the maneuvering action for entering and exiting a parking space. The rate of the maneuvering action for exiting a parking space can be advantageously processed in a queueing model, whereby it is also possible to arrive at a prognosis regarding the probability change at a later point-in-time. Such a later point-in-time could be, for example, the time of arrival at a certain city block in the context of a calculated navigational route. As a matter of principle, a prognosis can already be based on the historical probability distribution. However, the more current the used data, the better is the quality of the prognosis.
It can be further envisioned, that second information regarding the duration/rate of searching for a parking spot is detected as further information from motor vehicles looking for parking, in that, following detection of a maneuvering process by a vehicle for entering a parking space, the preceding location coordinates of the movement of the vehicle and the respective time stamp allocated to the respective location coordinates, as well are momentary velocities, are analyzed. Similarly to the maneuvering rate for exiting a parking space, the duration/rate of searching for a parking spot is used in the context of a queueing model for adapting the probability model at a later point-in-time.
To determine the probability distribution of free parking spaces to be expected, in step b), the historical data and the current information are expediently processed using Bayes' rule. Bayes' rule allows for a data fusion of historical data and current information in order to determine the probability distribution.
According to a further embodiment, a prognosis of the change of the probability distribution of free parking spaces to be expected is determined at a second given point-in-time, and wherein the second point-in-time follows after the first point-in-time, wherein the rate of maneuvering in an effort of exiting a parking space and the duration/rate of searching for a parking spot are processed in order to determine the prognosis. The second point-in-time can comprise an arrival time at a destination area that is established based on a navigational route and comprises the specified city blocks.
The prognosis can be achieved by modelling the probability distribution as determined at the first given point-in-time by the assumed transition to the expected state of the probability distribution, wherein the expected state corresponds to a state that matches the historical data. The prognosis is generated by use of the Erlang loss queueing model, for example.
The previously described information—maneuvering rate for exiting a parking space, duration/rate of searching for a parking spot—are used to provide a learning curve for the historical knowledge database, just like the current information regarding free parking spaces. The data fusion algorithm based on Bayes' rule thus takes into account the historical database as well as current information, thereby yielding a statement of good quality regarding the probability distribution of the free parking spaces that are to be expected, as well as regarding the quality of the estimation at the point-in-time of the determination thereof. In addition, the changes of the probability distribution over time, particularly the increase in uncertainty, are forecast assisted by an estimation of the traffic looking for parking and/or the maneuvering frequency for exiting a parking space. With the aid of this information, it is then possible to display a map containing the corresponding, optimized probabilities. The same can be offered for optimal search routes or for a decision-making step as to where parking spaces are best found. For example, it is possible to answer the question as to whether it is possible at all to find a route to a destination that is a likely available, free parking space.
An advantage of the described method lies in the fact that modern series produced motor vehicles are able to detect free parking spaces alongside streets and roadways automatically and without additional hardware. Sensors that are utilized by the vehicles anyway are used for this purpose. This information is then transmitted to a central computer, wherein this step can be implemented via telematics modules that are available in many motor vehicles anyway, and without causing additional expenditure. By the previously described fusion of historical and current data in the central computer, it is then possible to accumulate historical knowledge with regard to the probability of finding a parking space and the duration of the search for such a space. In addition, it is possible to incorporate attributes of the digital map related to parking spaces in the learning curve, which is why a detailed map is not required at the time of market introduction. Over time, the map can be compiled based on the better and better evolving historical data.
The invention further provides a computer program product that can be loaded directly into the internal memory of a digital computer or computer system, comprising software code sections by which it is possible to implement the steps according to the invention when the product is running on the computer or computer system.
Finally, the invention includes a system that provides parking information regarding free parking spaces within at least one city block. The system comprises as follows:                a) a first unit for detecting the information regarding available, free parking spaces that is configured so as to generate a knowledge database with historical data based on this detected information, wherein the historical data comprise respective statistical data regarding free parking spaces for specified city blocks and/or specified times or time periods;        b) a second unit for determining a probability distribution of free parking spaces to be expected for the single or plurality of selected city blocks based on the historical data and current information that are available at a first given point-in-time for a single or a plurality of selected city blocks from vehicles that are in traffic; and        c) a third unit for generating a visualization of the probability distribution that represents the parking information regarding free parking spaces within the single or the plurality of the selected city blocks.        
The system has the same advantages as described previously in connection with the method according to the invention. Moreover, the system can comprise further means for implementing preferred embodiments of the method.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.